Our testing methods
There's much to say about the S8 Nitro, but before we move on, let's get our testing methods out on the table, because much of what we're doing from here on out will be affected by our test platform and the like.
As ever, we did our best to deliver clean benchmark numbers. Tests were run at least twice, and the results were averaged.
Our test system was configured like so:
| System | MSI K8T Neo |
| Processor | AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 2.2GHz |
| North bridge | K8T800 |
| South bridge | VT8237 |
| Chipset drivers | 4-in-1 v.4.51 ATA 5.1.2600.220 |
| Memory size | 1GB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Corsair TwinX XMS3200LL DDR SDRAM at 400MHz |
| Hard drive | Seagate Barracuda V 120GB SATA 150 |
| Audio | Creative SoundBlaster Live! |
| OS | Microsoft Windows XP Professional |
| OS updates | Service Pack 1, DirectX 9.0b |
The S3 driver revision we used was version 6.14.10.1632-15.08.09.b. We used ATI's CATALYST 4.2 drivers on the Radeon card and Forceware 56.56 on the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra. One exception: at the request of FutureMark, we used NVIDIA's 52.16 drivers for all 3DMark benchmarking and image quality tests.
The test systems' Windows desktops were set at 1280x1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.
We used the following versions of our test applications:
- FutureMark 3DMark03 Build 340
- Comanche 4 demo
- Quake III Arena v1.31 with trdemo1.dm_67
- Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory with demo0000.dm_82
- Serious Sam SE v1.07 with Demo0003
- Unreal Tournament 2003 v.2225 with trtest1.dem
- Unreal Tournament 2004 demo
- Splinter Cell v1.2 with TRKalinatekDemo.bin
- ShaderMark 2.0 build 1e
- AquaMark3
- rthdribl 1.2
All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.
